The National Examinations Council (NECO) has launched a result verification and confirmation portal, called NECO e-Verify as part of initiative to tackle the forgery of the council’s certificate.

The NECO e-Verify, according to the Council is an online result verification solution that guarantees instant authentication of academic and basic information about prospective candidates for admission and employment into academic institutions and work.

Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr David Andrew Adejo, spoke during the unveiling of the NECO e-Verify platform on Thursday in Abuja.

Adejo, who expressed delight that NECO is ensuring its activities is aligning with global best practices, said the platform would go a long way in fishing out fake results, especially during the admission process.

Registrar of NECO, Professor Dantani Wushishi, speaking at the official launch of the platform at the National Universities Commission (NUC), Abuja, noted that the introduction of the NECO e-Verify was due to the growing need for verification and confirmation of results by institutions both home and abroad.

While stressing that the Council has been inundated with requests for certificate and results verification, disclosed that from available records, there were requests for verification and confirmation of results from 64 institutions across 37 countries over a two-year period (2020-2022).

The Registrar added that the result verification is an important process that helps to ensure the accuracy of academic credentials.

Wushishi said it was an indisputable fact that academic institutions and employers of labour, among other agencies, rely on verification of results to help them select the best prospective students for admission and employment purposes.

According to him, the benefits include increased confidence, risk reduction and improved efficiency.

The portal, he said, would give institutions and employers more confidence in admitting and hiring the most qualified candidates “especially in today’s world of technology where result forgery is easiest as such it is important to verify students and employees credentials for some studies and positions to ensure that the institutions/establishments successfully meet their goals.”

“With proper verification of candidate’s results, institutions and businesses will run more efficiently as they will be able to recruit the best applicants that are capable of learning faster and employees that can carry out their duties without or with minimal supervision. This also places universities and other tertiary institutions on a good pedestal as candidates with questionable results would not dare to apply for admission.

“This enviable feat, no doubt, will bring a great deal of relief to millions of our candidates, educational institutions and other stakeholders. Please join me as I take you through the workings of the NECO e-Verify platform.”